This invention relates to improved detection methods and techniques for detecting cancer in a human and/or animal patient.
There are a number of methods that are currently used to allow cancer to be detected and/or diagnosed in a human patient. One such detection method is by a patient or medically trained personnel manually detecting an unusual growth or lump on a part of their body or patient's body respectively using their hand or hands. Once detected, the patient then has to undergo various tests to confirm whether the lump or growth is malignant. A problem with this technique is that a growth or lump is often only detected at a late stage of cancer development when the lump or growth is relatively large. In addition, it only allows for cancer to be detected in certain parts of a patient's body and relies on the patient regularly checking parts of their body in order to realize that a lump or growth is present. Furthermore, due to the location of some cancerous lumps or growths, the patient may feel too embarrassed to get a lump or growth checked by medical personnel at a sufficiently early stage of the cancer development for treatment to be successful.
A further conventional method of cancer detection includes scanning or screening one or more parts of a patient's body. This is an expensive technique and is therefore normally only undertaken on patients with a high risk of developing a particular type of cancer. In addition, scanning or screening can only currently be used to detect certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer, and typically cancers that are at a relatively late stage of development.
The visual examination of tissue biopsies or samples, such as cervical smear tests, is a further method of cancer detection. However, a problem with this method is that the biopsies or smear tests are invasive and often fail to sample the cancerous cells, particularly when the cancer is at an early stage.
A relatively new area of cancer detection is the biochemical measurement of cancer-specific tumour marker proteins in tissue samples, blood or other bodily fluids taken from patients. This detection method has potential advantages over existing detection techniques in that it may be able to detect early stages of cancer. However, since it is still an emerging technology, it is expensive and relatively few types of cancers have so far been detected using this methodology. In addition, an initial cancer diagnosis using tumour marker proteins currently still has to be verified using biopsies or other bodily samples taken from the patient.
Cancer (or tumour) markers are proteins that are produced by cancer cells in significantly greater or lesser quantities than by non-cancer cells. Tumour-specific proteins may be actively secreted by the tumour cells or released into the circulatory system of the patient by necrosis and apoptosis of these cells. Either of these conditions is thought to lead to an alteration of the serum protein profile of the patient (1). As such, it is considered that the detection of cancer markers in blood and other bodily fluids could be a major component of the future of cancer diagnosis despite the abovementioned problems.
Current research and development of cancer markers has so far focused on tumour marker proteins that are specific to a particular type of cancer, with the aim of identifying said cancer type in a patient. A serious limitation of this current approach is that only particular types of cancer can be detected for which the specific markers have been discovered and validated. Since there is likely to be a large number of possible cancer markers for the different types of human cancers, and because the discovery and validation of cancer markers is currently a costly and prolonged enterprise, cancer detection using tumour protein markers is so far of limited use only.
Therefore, it can be seen that despite impressive scientific, medical and technological achievements over the past few decades, cancer is still a leading cause of death, largely because most cancers are diagnosed when disease is advanced. The current problem is that existing methods of cancer detection are unable to detect cancerous growth at a sufficiently early stage of development.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a method of detecting cancer in a human and/or animal patient using a universal cancer marker.
It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a method of detecting cancer at any stage in the cancer development, and particularly to detecting cancer at a relatively early stage of the cancer development.
It is a yet further aim of the present invention to provide a method of detecting cancer in a human and/or animal patient using blood, urine and/or other bodily fluid or tissue samples taken from said patient.
A further major problem is that the majority of anticancer drugs are excessively toxic to the patient. It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a method for determining the quantity or dosage of anticancer drugs and/or treatment which is more specific to a patient's requirements.